my bun behaviour

Question
QUESTION: Hi Mr.Meyer, i have angora bun. she's about 4 months old. I tried to litter train her, but she refused it. I placed litter box to where she usually peeing, but when she saw it, she changed her peeing place. and that happen many times, and she also poop everywhere. she even jumping and pooping. any idea i should try? and these last two weeks she start picking her food, and make mess with it. and she doesn't like timothy hay. is that normal? and these last two days she have new activities. she's running around, jumping around, running zig-zag, and then she "fell" herself on her side and sleeping and sometimes panting. is there something wrong with her? and just now when she know i drink with ice cube she ask for the ice cube, is she allowed to have that? and can i mix two different brand of rabbit pellet? because it seems she bored with her rabbit food. thanks

ANSWER: Hi,

it sounds like at 4 months, she is hitting her sexual maturity.  She is starting to mark territory (not 'going to the bathroom').  You will need to locate (if you don't have one yet) a good rabbit vet and get her examined and scheduled for a spay.  It will greatly reduce her hormonal behaviors - that she cannot stop herself from doing - and get her pretty much back to the bunny you had before.  It will also double her lifespan - most unspayed females die from uterine cancer by age 5-6.  Spaying her will allow her to live 10-12 years with you, given good care and the right diet.

The running and jumping and zig-zagging is normal and good to see.  She is playing.  Rabbits' play is them honing thier skills at avoiding imaginary predators.  The zig-zag and jumping turns, and quick turns you see are their survival skills.  That is how they shake off an enemy.  And her flopping over and such is just her resting.  She's fine.

She can have some of the ice cube, it should not be a problem.  I probably wouldn't give her a huge piece, one more her size.

Anything you do to food (changes) has to be done gradually.  As she is not a year old yet, and still growing, you could give her both Timothy pellets and Alfalfa pellets.  I recommend whatever brands you give her, do not give her anything with extra 'crap' like seeds, nuts, fruit pieces, etc - this is very high in sugar and calories and it is not good for them.  They will wind up eating only this and ignore the pellets.  If you are giving her this you need to slowly change her over to an only-pellet mix.  And at age 1, you need to stop giving her (again start weaning her off of it at 11 months, gradually) alfalfa pellets because she will be fully-grown and alfalfa has too much calcium for grown rabbits - it leads to bladder sludge and/or kidney stones.

Lee

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hi Mr.Meyer, it's me again. In where i live there are no vet that quite good with rabbit,cause they not common as pet here. I checked the web that you usually suggest for rabbit vet, but my country isn't listed there. and i read that spayed surgery could be fatal if the vet doesn't understand on how to handling a rabbit. and for the food there are two brand that common in here. First is Goldblends it contains corn, rice, rice bran, wheat grain, wheat bran, soybean meal, fullfat soybean, alfafa, leucaena meal, carrot meal, salt, essentials vitamins and minerals, antioxidant. and it has protein 22%, fat 2%, fiber 16%, moisture 11%, calcium 1.5%, phosporus 0.85%
   The other brand is Briter Bunny it contains  corn, rice, rice bran, wheat grain, wheat bran, soybean meal, fullfat soybean, alfafa, leucaena meal, carrot meal, salt, essentials vitamins and minerals, antioxidant and food coloring. and it has protein 18%, fat 2.5%, fiber 16%, moisture 10%, calcium 0.9%, phosporus 0.75%. the other brands more expensive but they also inserted dried fruit and dried carrot and dried peas (or can she have that too?) at first i give her briter bunny but since she look bored i changed it to gldblends. and now i mixed both of them. in your opinion which is best for her?
thanks before  

Answer
Hi,

there are a few international rabbit vet listing pages you should review:

http://members.shaw.ca/cocoasun/RabbitVetsMain.htm

http://homepage.mac.com/mattocks/morfz/PB_vets.html  (check near the bottom of this page)

If you still can't find a good rabbit vet, then I wouldn't get her spayed. However you will still need to canvas your area and call up vets and using the House Rabbit Society's interview questions (on the same page you were looking at), determine who would provide the best care for your rabbit in case of emergency.

As far as the food products go, neither of them is great.  Goldblends is probably worse for what it all contains, Briter Bunny is worse for being high in calcium.  Here is what I would do:

1.  If you can only take out one bad ingredient, take out the corn.  Corn pieces have a lot of undigestible fiber for rabbits, and they can easily cause a gut blockage.  If you can only remove one thing, please remove the corn.

2.  If you have time, I would remove the fruit pieces.  You can keep these separate in another small container, and every day, give one or two small pieces as a treat.  this way you control how much high calorie sugar she gets.  Sticky, high sugar items are bad for rabbit's teeth - they can't fully clean their teeth and it rots the teeth.

3.  Mix 2 parts of Briter Bunny with 1 part Goldblends.  Then go about removing the corn (and sticky dried fruit pieces, saving the fruit pieces for small treats).  You can try to replant the corn or use it for something else.

Lee